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Media Bias blog
Why Fox News in 1996 Proved There Was an Audience Nobody Was Serving A cable channel launched in October 1996 found a large audience almost at once, and that is market evidence about whom the rest of television news served. Death Panels, the Coverage, and the Board Congress Quietly Repealed The press mocked "death panels" in 2009 while a real ACA board with power over Medicare spending never seated a member and was repealed in 2018. Assault weapon, ghost gun, arsenal, how news vocabulary does the arguing Seven words in gun coverage carry a conclusion before any argument starts. Each one's legal meaning, its use in coverage, and a neutral alternative. Ten Words the Press Uses About the Supreme Court, Translated for Normal People Activist, extreme, supermajority, rogue and six more words carry arguments inside them. Each is defined, tested against named cases and given a verdict. How the Press Covers Supreme Court Decisions, and What the Stories Leave Out Court coverage tells you who won, not what the opinion held. Test three famous frames against the actual rulings, then learn to read a syllabus in ten minutes. Why newsrooms cover believers like a tribe they have never met Coverage often treats religious Americans as a bloc to be explained, not people with reasons, and fair coverage is not hard to describe. Freedom of the Press Meant No Prior Restraint, and Then It Meant More Blackstone's free press banned censorship in advance but allowed punishment after. How American law moved past him, from Zenger to Sullivan. 'My body, my choice' is a slogan, so let's take it seriously for once The slogan assumes the answer to the one question in dispute: whether a second human body is involved. Its history, its best argument and its limits. The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 and what the law requires A 2002 federal law says an infant born alive at any stage is a person. What the statute says, how it passed, and why the later fight is over enforcement. Hot Day Means Climate Crisis, Cold Snap Means Weather, a Lesson in Coverage Coverage treats every heat wave as climate and every cold spell as weather. Here is the distinction scientists draw and how to check a claim yourself. The AP Stylebook Changed a Phrase in 2013 and the Coverage Changed With It One wire-service style decision in 2013 reshaped how the immigration story is told, and the statutes never changed with it. Why the Fact-Check Became Its Own Genre and How to Check the Checkers Fact-checking grew from a newsroom chore into a branded genre with its own rating scales. Here is how it works and a method for testing any check. Anonymous Sources, Who Gets Them and What a Reader Should Demand Anonymity is sometimes the only way the truth gets out and often a way to avoid accountability. Here are five questions that tell the two apart. Seven Words Reporters Use to Tilt a Story Without Telling a Single Lie Bias rarely hides in false facts. It hides in seven small words, and here is a substitution test that exposes each one. How to Read a News Story From the Bottom Up and Catch What the Lede Hides A numbered, practical method for reading a news story backwards: sources, verbs, bare numbers, headlines, last words and datelines, with a worked example. The Corrections Page Is the Most Honest Part of the Paper, So Read It How corrections, clarifications, editor's notes and retractions differ, why silent edits matter, and how to judge an outlet by how it handles its mistakes. When Dateline Rigged a Pickup Truck to Burn and Then Apologized on Air NBC's 1992 Dateline segment used hidden igniters to help a GM truck burn on camera, then apologized in 1993. Why a staged picture is worse than a wrong fact. The Duke Lacrosse Case and the Rush to a Verdict the Facts Never Supported In 2006 a false accusation was treated as proven until North Carolina's attorney general declared three athletes innocent in 2007. The due-process lesson. Richard Jewell and the Trial by Headline of a Security Guard Who Was a Hero A guard who saved lives at the 1996 Olympics was named as the FBI's focus within days. What the Jewell case teaches about leaks, headlines and due process. From Banned Claim to Live Hypothesis, How the Lab-Leak Debate Was Framed Newsrooms say they simply follow the evidence. The lab-leak record shows how a question was labelled a conspiracy theory before the evidence was in. The Laptop Story Twitter Blocked and the Letter That Gave It Cover In October 2020 Twitter blocked a New York Post story and 51 ex-officials suggested a Russian hand. The record shows why platforms should not edit elections. Walter Duranty's Pulitzer and the Famine the New York Times Did Not See A Pulitzer-winning Moscow correspondent downplayed the Ukrainian famine while a young Welshman told the truth. What access does to a reporter's judgment. Fabricated From the Byline Up, Four Scandals That Shamed Elite Newsrooms Four celebrated reporters invented people and scenes while editors trusted a good story over a check. What Cooke, Glass, Blair and Kelley teach readers. The Night a Network Bet Its Reputation on Memos Typed Like a Word File CBS aired Bush Guard memos in 2004 that bloggers doubted within hours; an independent panel faulted the process. The lesson: verify before you wish.